---
title:  Creating Regions Dynamically
---

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You can dynamically create regions in your application code and automatically instantiate them on members of a cluster.

Due to the number of options involved, most developers use functions to create regions dynamically in their applications, as described in this topic. Dynamic regions can also be created from the `gfsh` command line.

For a complete discussion of using <%=vars.product_name%> functions, see [Function Execution](../function_exec/chapter_overview.html). Functions use the `org.apache.geode.cache.execute.FunctionService` class.

If your application does not require partitioned regions, you can use the `org.apache.geode.cache.DynamicRegionFactory` class to dynamically create regions, or
you can create them using the `<dynamic-region-factory>` element in the cache.xml file that defines the region.
(You can create partitioned regions dynamically, but you cannot use the `DynamicRegionFactory` class or the
`<dynamic-region-factory>` element to do it.)

**Note:** Use of the `DynamicRegionFactory` class (and the `<dynamic-region-factory>` element) are deprecated in favor of the `FunctionService` approach described here.

In the following example, the `CreateRegionFunction` class defines a function invoked on a server by a client using the `onServer()` method of the `FunctionService` class. This function call initiates region creation by putting an entry into the region attributes metadata region. The entry key is the region name and the value is the set of region attributes used to create the region.

``` pre
#CreateRegionFunction.java

import org.apache.geode.cache.Cache;
import org.apache.geode.cache.CacheFactory;
import org.apache.geode.cache.DataPolicy;
import org.apache.geode.cache.Declarable;
import org.apache.geode.cache.Region;
import org.apache.geode.cache.RegionAttributes;
import org.apache.geode.cache.RegionFactory;
import org.apache.geode.cache.Scope;

import org.apache.geode.cache.execute.Function;
import org.apache.geode.cache.execute.FunctionContext;

import java.util.Properties;

public class CreateRegionFunction implements Function, Declarable {

  private final Cache cache;
  
  private final Region<String,RegionAttributes> regionAttributesMetadataRegion;

  private static final String REGION_ATTRIBUTES_METADATA_REGION = 
                                     "_regionAttributesMetadata";
  
  public enum Status {SUCCESSFUL, UNSUCCESSFUL, ALREADY_EXISTS};

  public CreateRegionFunction() {
    this.cache = CacheFactory.getAnyInstance();
    this.regionAttributesMetadataRegion = createRegionAttributesMetadataRegion();
  }

  public void execute(FunctionContext context) {
    Object[] arguments = (Object[]) context.getArguments();
    String regionName = (String) arguments[0];
    RegionAttributes attributes = (RegionAttributes) arguments[1];

    // Create or retrieve region
    Status status = createOrRetrieveRegion(regionName, attributes);

    // Return status
    context.getResultSender().lastResult(status);
  }
  
  private Status createOrRetrieveRegion(String regionName, 
                                        RegionAttributes attributes) {
    Status status = Status.SUCCESSFUL;
    Region region = this.cache.getRegion(regionName);
    if (region == null) {
      // Put the attributes into the metadata region. The afterCreate call will
      // actually create the region.
      this.regionAttributesMetadataRegion.put(regionName, attributes);
      
      // Retrieve the region after creating it
      region = this.cache.getRegion(regionName);
      if (region == null) {
        status = Status.UNSUCCESSFUL;
      }
    } else {
      status = Status.ALREADY_EXISTS;
    }
    return status;
  }
  
  private Region<String,RegionAttributes> 
  createRegionAttributesMetadataRegion() {
    Region<String, RegionAttributes> metaRegion = 
                         this.cache.getRegion(REGION_ATTRIBUTES_METADATA_REGION);
    if (metaRegion == null) {
      RegionFactory<String, RegionAttributes> factory =
                              this.cache.createRegionFactory();
      factory.setDataPolicy(DataPolicy.REPLICATE);
      factory.setScope(Scope.DISTRIBUTED_ACK);
      factory.addCacheListener(new CreateRegionCacheListener());
      metaRegion = factory.create(REGION_ATTRIBUTES_METADATA_REGION);
    }
    return metaRegion;
  }

  public String getId() {
    return getClass().getSimpleName();
  }

  public boolean optimizeForWrite() {
    return false;
  }

  public boolean isHA() {
    return true;
  }

  public boolean hasResult() {
    return true;
  }

  public void init(Properties properties) {
  }
}
```

The `CreateRegionCacheListener` class is a cache listener that implements two methods, `afterCreate()` and `afterRegionCreate()`. The `afterCreate()` method creates the region. The `afterRegionCreate()` method causes each new server to create all the regions defined in the metadata region.

``` pre
#CreateRegionCacheListener.java

import org.apache.geode.cache.Cache;
import org.apache.geode.cache.CacheFactory;
import org.apache.geode.cache.Declarable;
import org.apache.geode.cache.EntryEvent;
import org.apache.geode.cache.Region;
import org.apache.geode.cache.RegionAttributes;
import org.apache.geode.cache.RegionEvent;
import org.apache.geode.cache.RegionExistsException;

import org.apache.geode.cache.util.CacheListenerAdapter;

import java.util.Map;
import java.util.Properties;

public class CreateRegionCacheListener 
             extends CacheListenerAdapter<String,RegionAttributes>
             implements Declarable {

  private Cache cache;
  
  public CreateRegionCacheListener() {
    this.cache = CacheFactory.getAnyInstance();
  }

  public void afterCreate(EntryEvent<String,RegionAttributes> event) {
    createRegion(event.getKey(), event.getNewValue());
  }
  
  public void afterRegionCreate(RegionEvent<String,RegionAttributes> event) {
    Region<String,RegionAttributes> region = event.getRegion();
    for (Map.Entry<String,RegionAttributes> entry : region.entrySet()) {
      createRegion(entry.getKey(), entry.getValue());
    }
  }
  
  private void createRegion(String regionName, RegionAttributes attributes) {
    if (this.cache.getLogger().fineEnabled()) {
      this.cache.getLogger().fine(
                             "CreateRegionCacheListener creating region named: "
                             + regionName + " with attributes: " + attributes);
    }
    try {
      Region region = this.cache.createRegionFactory(attributes)
        .create(regionName);
      if (this.cache.getLogger().fineEnabled()) {
        this.cache.getLogger().fine("CreateRegionCacheListener created: "
                               + region);
      }
      System.out.println("CreateRegionCacheListener created: " + region);
    } catch (RegionExistsException e) {/* ignore */}
  }

  public void init(Properties p) {
  }
}
```


